One of the largest statue in the world is finally taking shape on a hill overlooking the international Bali airport, ready to dominate the landscape.
It will be officially inaugurated on August 28, 2018, the day in which it will be open the IMF Bank event.
The figure represents the God Wisnu riding the mythical bird Garuda, source of wisdom and preservation in the Hindu religion, a religion practiced in Indonesia millennia ago, before the advent of Islam.
In order to complete the enormous copper and brass sculpture, the project required more than 20 years of work. Moreover, more than $100 million was raised from private benefactors.
The statue, with a height of 121 meters, is about 30 meters shorter than the Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbor, but Garuda is almost as wide as it is tall. Its wingspan is 64 meters, with a total weight of 3,000 tons.
The shape is so complex that engineers have designed special joints for the support structure, with up to 11 huge steel beams joining the same point. The normal construction joints have four or six beams.
It was designed, built and planned by an important Indonesian sculptor named Nyoman Nuarta, who conceived this majestic creation together with the Former Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave in 1997, with the idea of materializing a cultural masterpiece, memorable, and indissoluble value over the centuries, which becomes the iconic landmark of Indonesia.
For this reason, Nyoman wanted to commit himself freely to this visionary plan with the intention of making a gift to his native land, Bali.
The sculptor has involved hundreds of collaborators who, together with him in the island of Java, in Bandung, have developed the project. They have made 724 modules in wax, then in fiberglass, then in copper, then in brass, cut in and transported by a truck to Bali for the final installation, where the elements were recomposed and welded by hand.
One of the parts that make this statue spectacular are the Sicis mosaic decorations, the majestic headgear of the deity, the necklace that adorns him and the two shoulder pads.
Sicis is an Italian company world leader in the production of mosaics and for the realization of artistic mosaics, able to interpret in mosaic every project and in every work where it is involved.
Sicis provided the precious mosaic tesserae in gold and glass paste, and it took more than 2000 hours of work to hand-lay tesserae after tesserae, following the irregularities of the sculpture. The mosaic outstandingly enhances the face of the divinity, giving light and preciousness to the entire artistic product.
The project is very important for Indonesia, said one of the people behind the project, “Culture is a big part of our country, for our civilization.” “With culture all of us can be equal.”” Our goal is to build something great for our children and grandchildren, for our generation and for the world.”
